A/HRC/25/19
78.
OHCHR contributed to the implementation of the policy on human rights screening
of United Nations personnel, endorsed by the Secretary-General to ensure that the
Secretariat does not recruit or deploy any senior staff member who has violated
international human rights or humanitarian law. OHCHR co-chairs, jointly with Office of
Human Resources Management, the Secretariat-wide working group on screening of United
Nations personnel, and actively participated in the review process of the policy by
accumulating lessons learned, including challenges and initial results.
79.
Two years after its adoption, the human rights due diligence policy on United
Nations support to non-United Nations security forces has proved its value as a tool to
assist principled and effective engagement in situations where risks of serious human rights
violations by regional and national security forces with which the United Nations is
partnering are high. The policy has garnered strong support from Member States and civil
society actors, and has been frequently referred to by the Security Council. OHCHR
supported the implementation of this critical policy by developing additional guidelines,
advising United Nations peace missions, United Nations country teams and individual
United Nations entities on the development of procedures and risk assessments, and by
facilitating lessons learning.
2.
Engagement in humanitarian action
80.
In May, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and I presented a joint
paper to the Inter-Agency Standing Committee on the protection of human rights in
humanitarian crises, bearing in mind the conclusions made in the report of the SecretaryGeneral’s Internal Review Panel on United Nations action in Sri Lanka. The Committee
consequently included human rights protection as one of its five priorities for the period
2013-2015. Furthermore, human rights protection has been included as a standing item of
the agenda of the Committee Working Group for 2014-2015.
81.
OHCHR also contributed to the Transformative Agenda protocols, and committed a
number of staff to the inter-agency rapid response mechanisms. OHCHR staff members are
applying the new arrangements for the humanitarian programme cycle to the 2014 strategic
planning for humanitarian responses to a number of crises.
82.
OHCHR field presences continued to lead protection clusters in Haiti, Mauritania
and Palestine, and to co-lead in the Pacific. They also actively engaged in supporting
humanitarian coordinators and country teams, as well as protection clusters or protection
forums, through the work of human rights field presences (in Mali and Yemen) or rapid
response teams (in the Central African Republic, Mali and Myanmar). In November,
OHCHR sent a team to the Philippines to support the United Nations Resident Coordinator
and the country team in the aftermath of typhoon Yolanda.
F.
Human rights mechanisms and development of international law
1.
Treaty bodies
83.
Following the extension of the intergovernmental process for strengthening the
human rights treaty body system, ultimately until February 2014, OHCHR continued to
provide support to the co-facilitators of the process. In addition to facilitating informal
consultations with all treaty bodies, civil society and the Human Rights Council, OHCHR
organized, in April 2013, a workshop on developing the capacity of States to report to
treaty bodies and to follow-up on concluding observations. In order to foster synergy
between the treaty bodies and the intergovernmental process, the annual meeting of the
chairpersons of treaty bodies was organized in New York, in May. Furthermore, my Office
finalized a comprehensive cost assessment of the treaty body system as requested by the
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